Zyklon
by ShindaHotaru
Summary: A cyclone is an air mass rotating around a low-pressure atmospheric center. While everything around him is caught up in fatal motions, Luffy feels muted in the wake of the accident. With most of them lost, how could they escape the storm?
1. Prologue

**Note: Due to ffn very strange and unfriendly formatting settings, following goes: anything center-aligned is supposed to be typed like a Typewriter texts (quotes sort of) and what is center-aligned and italic is supposed to be stroked through. I hate to do this but for this chapter I recommend reading it over on AO3 (same title, same author name)**

 **Also: This is the remake of my dropped story Cyclone. Check my author's profile for more information.**

* * *

 **Prologue**

"There's another wave coming!" yelled from the railing, its announcement merely a desperate way to do anything at all. "What the hell are we going to do?" Men were running about, securing the ship, fastening ropes where values should remain safe from the clutches of the seas. "Just keep going! I'm trying to find a way fo-" the wave swallowed their breaths and words and visions, yet they kept themselves above the surface. For how long?

What was the ocean but the collections of drowned beliefs and dreams, the core drives of man's self-esteem?

Wherever the water hadn't reached the ship, their panic found shelter. Pushing and shoving, the ship had no course anymore but where the storm wanted it to go. Were they to follow, they wouldn't return. " _Nami_! What should we do? The waves are going to push us over!"

" _Don't you think I know?_ I don't know, we just need to try fighting against them! The storm should be over soon!" hands holding onto the ship, grasping whatever chance there was left, with wood so soaked up with seawater and fear.

How to keep a solid footing where no soil forms a ground to stand on? how to keep a balance in a shapeless world?

Once her hands let go, too tired from holding on for life, her body was lost in the forces of the storm and the clutch of the ocean. Without her, their hope was gone, and their lives, too. No attempt could change their fate, one by one they followed her, robbed of their willpower, betrayed by the freedom they had ever so trusted.

 _If anything could be_

"Is this real? It's just a nightmare-"

 _With no shore to_

"Luffy!"

A new day must come.

"Yes, what?" His fingers hovered over the keys, the next words already threatening to slip from their tips. Annoyance was an overwhelming sensation, to dread because it loosened the concentration from his mind.

Sounding closer but no bodily shape in sight, the voice resumed the violent action to tear his thoughts from his hands. "Didn't I tell you take out the trash? I'm running late so could you please finally do as I say? For once, maybe?" She joined her words in the doorway to his room, his little hideout from the world.

Slipped. The emotions replaced by agitation and finally by defeat, no more linked to the thoughts he needed to type down. All gone, what he couldn't feel, he couldn't put into words. "I'll do it, Robin." So hollow but that wasn't her blame to take—his resolve had been swept away.

"Fine," she forced a smile, knowing well how her good intentions weren't seeping through to him. "I don't mean to cage you in rules but it would make life easier if we shared the chores. And you could use some inspirational walk."

Luffy turned around with a grin growing on his lips. "To the dumpster. Sure."

"Yes, why not. If others gain inspirations while on the toilet, why can't you find your muse on the way to the dumpster?" Though filling each word with her characteristic humour, she remained with a neutral face for a whole moment until she curved her lips into a smile. Wasn't his grin still contagious, she thought.

No longer annoyed by her—how could he ever—Luffy rolled his eyes and turned back to the typewriter, the grin nearly turning up into laughter. "Go to work finally! Your brain must be bored…"

"Until I have to read through your mess of grammar tonight." Robin said her goodbye, one of her disembodied hands brushing his chaos of raven black hair to one side in her unique kind of affection, and left to work.

"What mess of grammar, it's gotten better…" Luffy mumbled, ruffling through his hair to reinstall his hairstyle. At least his words matched his meanings and those came across just nicely and exactly as he wanted them to reach the reader. Would he amaze her otherwise?

A new day must come. To find what's lost. **︳**


	2. Earth Slide

**Chapter 1: Earth Slide**

* * *

Wetness was dripping from the above, a single drop had made it through to pool on his forehead. So it was raining again, heavily enough to seep through the ground. A sudden idea of feeling drained rushed through his bones but he wasn't so sure about it—fleeting sensations had lost their meaning when time had stopped flowing. If it wasn't for the occasional rain, there was nothing left to feel, not even the fear now sitting atop his ribcage. How this particular emotion turned his space so much smaller, he had forgotten how that bothered him.

And as the rain was coming and leaving, never more than some droplets to him, his soul reduced itself to the thickest of emotions. That which could live of its own fat way beyond the spiritual starvation. He had been there. Once. For what had felt like a timeless dimension, and still hadn't even lasted for hundred years. But nearly.

He had been there. In the dark, in the void, in the numbness of his own body. Floating through nothing but at least having a plan haunting his mind, some mission to seek. Something to keep him going, if only through the misty emptiness that his life had become. Had it felt like the worst idea of hell to him, and to any man it would have felt the same.

What could be worse than that floating hell he had been rescued from not that long ago?

Well, a hell six feet under ground.

⸻⸻⸻

The amused look in her eyes opened doors for his insecurity, nothing new when he was awaiting her judgment. "What's so funny?" he heard himself asking nonetheless, after all none of it was meant to be amusing.

"That a trip to the dumpster indeed boosted your productivity. I barely remember the last time you gave me so many words to read," Robin smiled widely, "And it's funny that you stopped rewriting passages after your dumpster trip." Her voice was swelling with pride at being right but Luffy knew that most of it belonged to him.

It had been her idea in the first place. When one day his memories had turned him blind, unable to see any sense in _every_ thing, and their loud crashing waves had filled his head up with imaginary seawater, Robin had said: "Write it down. If speaking it out hurts, then hush it to the paper." Later on, Luffy had realised that reading it hurt her less, too.

But writing was so hard. Luffy had never had a reason to, nor to read since there was Robin to do that for him. Although having been taught how to do either of it, his ability to actually perform these skills had been moulded into a miserable state over time. With guidance and lessons by Robin, he had eventually learned how to express himself through written down words and taught himself how to draw pictures with them as well.

"It _might_ have helped," Luffy admitted with a roll of his eyes and a smile on his lips. Her pride of his development and results mattered to him a lot, on some days it was the only reason for him to leave his bed.

"Well, then I suggest you repeat it. The fresh air and exercise would be good for you." One of her motherly advices Luffy had come to love as much as loathe. At times, these actions made it hard to remember her true person.

"Actually, there's a contest to be held next month, you should totally submit one of your works." Reaching down to her bag, she rummaged through its front pockets and pulled out a folded paper. After returning it to its original state, she handed it over to Luffy. "It's got no rules as in type of writing. It's nothing big, just some local competition—but the prize seems useful."

A frown settled onto his features at the piece of paper handed over to him. To bring home flyers to him wasn't unusual of Robin but all of them had in some sort been job offerings, if only small tasks like sweeping front yards or even babysitting. Her wage was enough for them to get by, to run this apartment with barely enough space for the two of them―she was mostly afraid to leave him alone every day with nothing else to do but to watch his memories. Luffy understood—all of the rules and chores and teachings were Robin's way of taking care of the situation and expressing her strong loyalty to him. Despite their situation.

 _First prize: Gift card of 1500 beli_ it said, accompanied by the logo of the local shopping mall. Second prize was another gift card of 500 beli for the stationery store at the mall. As much as he would love to buy thicker paper and a better notepad, he was to go for gold—given he would participate. "Don't I… like have to submit it under my real name?"

Robin shook her head. "Authors do make use of pen names. It's common and legal, also mentioned in the terms and conditions at the bottom."

Indeed, _alternatively, participants may submit their works anonymously using a pen name_ , it read in a smaller font. "And… you think I could win?"

"I am certain of it."


	3. Westerly

Gaze wandering upward, there was nothing else to be seen but grey endlessness, here and there disturbed by bald treetops. Nature had shed its colourful diversity completely and by now he was certain it was Winter. Harsh winds blew past the branches, rattling the younger twigs dangerously in their cruelty. There was little green on the ground, sturdy moss defying the conditions that all leaves and flowers had fallen victim to some weeks ago.

If he was to go by his experiences, this could hardly be Winter. Mild temperatures kept the waters liquid and the rain falling. Each night it would soak him through until he couldn't tell if he had ever left the ocean or was still drowning in it. Maybe he was?

His feet didn't hold him up any longer so he settled onto the spongy moss he was standing on. Its instability let him sink in a little and if it wasn't so wet, it could be comfortable. Heavy downpour drenched him in coldness and emptiness and loneliness. At least, when the red and yellow had tipped the ends of the twigs in autumn and the floors had been carrying a variety of grass patches, there had been animals around for company. Now they were all in a deep slumber and he was left with the remaining silence that filled in the voids Mother Nature had left. And the void left within him, isolated from those inhabiting this forest by his sheer biological difference, separated from those he was connected to through emotional bonds.

What loneliness meant, he had come to know. How cold it could feel, he had never dared to imagine.

⸻⸻⸻

There was no need to spend a thought on how Robin had been right—again. Her level of experience and knowledge would always remain out of his reach, beyond his imagination—but for what would he have to surpass her? Let alone reach her when she was by his side already to gift him with her intelligence and wisdom. She was there and with him, and there was nothing else that mattered.

So once Robin had left for work, Luffy found himself bothered by the largeness of the apartment. On Weekends it tended to feel too small for both of them, with Robin using their shared living-room as her bedroom at night. The money she earned from shelving books at the local library sufficed for a fifth-storey apartment in the cheapest quarter of the town, only consisting of a bath, a kitchen big enough for one to cook inside, a medium-sized room and something Robin had labelled as "storage" that now was Luffy's bedroom. Little by little they had collected furniture, some of it from piles of bulk rubbish, the rest were gifts from Robin's co-workers. It was enough for them, they had a safe place to sleep, money for the basics of living and Robin's cooking was becoming a highlight of Luffy's daily routine. And what money was left to spare at the end of the month, they saved for emergencies.

Only once they had used it to spend on luxury. When Zoro's birthday had been on schedule, they had bought an used typewriter for Luffy and a coffee maker for Robin. To date that had been the only day they had spend from morning till evening in public.

To avoid feeling bored and lonely, Luffy decided to give Robin's suggestion a try. Properly dressed for the cold weather in a coat and boots he didn't like, he strolled through the alleys snaking around the large buildings forming the housing estate. A worn down, second-hand bag strapped over his shoulder to carry his sorry excuse of a notepad and some pens that—after an incident involving heavy rain—he had been clever enough to wrap in a plastic bag.

There was a playground three buildings south from theirs and at this time of day occupied by the kids of the neighbourhood. A sky clear of clouds and shining blue and fresh was a promising condition for life to flee the tiny and sad apartments. According to the man on the radio, there would be no more rain until December so Luffy's hopes were high to be able to come here for the rest of the week.

When he sat down on a bench in front of the only tree, some of the boys by the slope waved at him and grinned when he greeted back. In late September, nearly three months after the catastrophe—when Robin had still had the mind to drag him out of the house, even lock him out while she had been at work—Luffy had befriended the group of three boys. They had usually played together until past dinner time and Luffy had ever since wondered if their parents even cared. To have eleven-year-old's play alone in the dark wasn't wrong to him but had always seemed to him as if they would never return to their homes for the night. Or was he projecting?

It didn't take long for them to settle around him, apparently thrilled to see him again after weeks. "You here to play till your mother picks you up?"

Luffy smiled, not having the mind to correct people anymore. "Not really, I'm looking for some inspiration."

"Inspi- what?" The boy in front of him, Gary, looked at him in confusion.

"He's out of ideas, stupid!" Nathan rolled his eyes at his friend, then turned to their older companion. "You draw?"

"No, I write," Luffy answered with a shake of his head, "There's a contest at the library and I want to write something for it."

"Oh! I know! My sister won second prize last year!" Ian threw in excitedly. "Her story was so creepy…"

"Yeah I heard they like creepy ones better," Nathan nodded, "They read the best ones at school fair last year."

All the while, Luffy watched them interacting with a smile. Not that living alone with Robin made him feel lonely, not at all, but they were different in so many areas that having other people to talk to filled the hole inside him even more.

"So you think I should write a ghost story?" Could he even? So far he had only written about the accident and the damages his mind, heart and soul had taken from it. A ghost story seemed more of creative writing than simply expressing thoughts.

"Yeah! Write 'bout that spooky grave in Hitchwick!" Gary piped in eagerly, "My uncle tells stories 'bout it! You can hear noises from it but it's dead and so creepy and…"

While the boys kept riddling about the oh so spooky grave, Luffy was wondering if he should reveal to them how he had seen far creepier things than that. But the very thought about it was threatening a wound inside his chest that was slowly reacting to Robin's care and he had no mind to tear it open.

"...no, I swear it's true! The body was only bones," Gary insisted with a small pout.

"Wait, what?" Luffy's attention was forcefully being drawn to the brown-haired boy in front of him. "You mean like a skeleton?"

"Yeah, like that one in the candy shop on Halloween. Uncle Jacob said they found it in the river and then buried it and later there were noises coming from the grave. Like it still lives," Gary continued, repeating the story for his older friend.

"Mum says it's just plastic and that the people from Hitchwick only want to spook people," Ian said, "And to scare the kids to make them stay away from the river."

"It's real! My uncle wouldn't lie!" Gary's temper was reddening his face and turning the knuckles of his clenched fists white.

Sensing how the situation was stirring up emotions, Luffy quickly interfered. "Well, I guess I need to ask your uncle myself? Then I can write about it."

"Really? Cool!" Gary beamed at the recognition by his friend. "Uncle Jacob sells meat at the mall. I can take you there!"

Luffy smiled, "Thank you but I have to wait for… my mother first."

And this strange knot in his chest to loosen.


End file.
